Lost in translation 🧭

Have you ever invented something? ✨

And then showed it to someone else? 

And they had no idea what you were talking about? ❓

Kind of a bummer isn’t it? ☹️

It’s happened to me a lot!

But it’s happened enough that I’m starting to find ways to avoid it.

Here are a few tips that might keep your idea from getting lost in translation!

🔹Establish a baseline - Start by making sure you both understand the current state of the art. What’s the best example of how “it” is done without your idea

🔹Identify the problem - Look closely at the existing solution, and talk about what could be better. Talk about what’s already good too!

🔹Describe the details - Show what changes between your idea and the “old” way. You may need to break down the current solution’s functionality into smaller chunks, discard the parts you’re not using anymore, then add your new stuff in.

🔹Show the improvement - Now that we understand how your idea works, highlight why it’s better. Cheaper, faster, more efficient, cooler - whatever. Nothing’s ever free though, so I’d suggest talking about the tradeoffs too - what got worse?

What do you think? How do you approach describing something new?

-Brian Schoolcraft